Carli Lutz is a sophomore arts administration major with a graphic design minor. She is the Chief of Visual Design at The Current.
Since I was about 17 years old, I’ve had these episodes where I would experience crazy heart palpitations out of nowhere, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I always thought these were just panic attacks triggered by stress from my workload at school, so I just shook them off as if they weren’t that big of a deal. However, as I continued to learn more about how to handle my stress, they became more and more frequent and random.
During my first semester at NSU, I found out what was really going on; it wasn’t the stress that I had originally thought it was. I found out that I have a heart valve disease.
In my freshman year, during my Principles of Management midterm, my heart felt like it was going to pop right out of my chest. Suddenly, while I was on the last question, I felt as if there was a butterfly trapped in my chest.
As soon as I left the classroom, it got much worse. I felt very dizzy, and my vision began to blur. When I checked my heart rate, it was at 275 beats per minute, which was absolutely off the charts. I was completely terrified, and I didn’t think I would make it through what was happening to me. I frantically called my mom and asked her to take me to the hospital.
When we were in the emergency room, they blamed this episode on midterm stress. I knew that wasn’t the case, though, as I was fairly confident that I had passed the exam without a hitch. Soon after I left the emergency room, I made my way to the cardiologist where I underwent various tests.
I was diagnosed with Mitral Valve Prolapse and Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT). Mitral Valve Prolapse, also known as Barlow Syndrome, is the irregular closure of the valve that’s found between the heart’s lower and upper left chambers. SVT is when your heart beats super fast for no reason whatsoever, and, with it, your heart rate may reach up to 300 bpm during an episode, which is far from normal.
While I know for sure that I have these conditions, my doctor thinks that I might have another heart problem as well. Soon, I will undergo testing to see if some of my heart problems stem from an electrical issue that’s called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. With Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, the heart has an extra electrical pathway that causes a rapid heart rate.
While what I have are two of the most common conditions in young people, they make life very frustrating. The condition of my heart makes my day-to-day life very unpredictable because it can go from zero to 100 really quickly. With my episodes happening without any notice or known trigger, it’s hard to plan certain things because I don’t know if it’ll be a “bad heart day” or a good one.
Life with heart problems is hard, especially as at this point in my life, as I’m trying to live a healthier life with regular exercise. Having a bad heart is a constant struggle between wanting to get healthier and not wanting to risk overexertion and cause more heart problems, or even sudden death. My life with a heart condition is like a really bumpy road, but I’m trying my best to make it a bit smoother.
